A Look at the Many Phases of the Raffle/Lottery

NORTHERN LIGHTS, UKAHALA–One of our army’s weekly highlights is trying your luck in the raffle and lottery. Join us for a look at all its themes so far!

Every Wednesday in the Recon Federation of Club Penguin (RFCP), tickets go on sale. These alternate between lottery and raffle tickets, and on Saturdays, the winner(s) is/are drawn live. This post takes an exciting look at the evolution of the lottery/raffle, and goes over the main differences between the two!

The lottery/raffle is not a division–it is a committee much like the Party Planning Committee and the Soldier Advisement Committee Office (SACO). An ex-member conceived the idea for the lottery on July 11, 2023, perhaps inspired by the Powerball excitement that same June, when the jackpot reached over $300 million USD.

LotteryRaffle
PremiseEach ticket has 5 numbers between 1-99 and 1 “Super” number between 1-47 (our record max at a battle!). One ticket is drawn from the total number of tickets sold. Each ticket represents one chance to win.
Price$20 BB$10 BB
Limited Quantity?None. Buy as many as you like.None. Buy as many as you like.
Possible winners?Multiple.One–winner takes the whole pot (pot = total BB amount of ticket sales for that week).
How it’s DrawnThe one with most correct numbers on one single ticket is the grand prize winner and automatically gets half the pot. Then, every ticket with a match is awarded either $5, $10, $15, or $20 BB per match depending on how much the pot can equally support using whole numbers. Any leftover money in the pot which can’t be divided equally goes to the winner of the Super (who also got a match prize) if there is one, and if there are leftovers. If there isn’t a Super winner, the leftover remainder goes to the first place winner. If there is no remainder, the Super winner gets one free lottery ticket the next time.

The website we use to draw the lottery numbers looks very similar to the PowerBall!
Names are added to a digital wheel (1 ticket = 1 instance of a name, and the same name can appear multiple times). The wheel is spun.
Website used to draw the lottery. https://simublast.com/lottery-simulator/
Website used to draw the raffle. https://wheelofnames.com/

Calculating the lottery winner(s) is complicated: It takes more time and effort than determining who won the raffle, so occasionally the payouts for the lottery don’t come until one or two days later. This is because the lottery allows for multiple winners, which was designed so that several soldiers can enjoy a sense of victory–or at least make back the money they spent on the ticket.

An example of a spreadsheet sometimes used to calculate lottery winners.
Another example.

The 4 themes we’ve seen the lottery/raffle adopt, in chronological order, are:

  • KrispyBall
  • Conq.Ball
  • HamsterBall
  • MountieBall

Krispy Ball was chaired by the ex-member. Prices did not stabilize until a few weeks into its founding, and during this era there was a limit on how many tickers one could purchase.

The small purple rectangle on the right is an easter egg. It was a ticket a former member designed for the inaugural lottery before we crafted a more professional ticket.

Conq. Ball was sponsored by the RFCP Marines and chaired by Conquistador Don. Its unique feature was that tickets were written in Spanish.

Hamster Ball was a prototype that never went into play. However, its use of an actual hamster ball made it interesting.

The fourth and current theme is Mountie Ball, chaired by Col. Randomplayer10. It sports a Canadian theme, complete with maple syrup.

All tickets were designed by the Honorably Retired Microwaveable Hamster.

Tickets are on sale today! Partake this and every week in one of RFCP’s most beloved modern traditions. May fortune be on your side.

Which theme was YOUR favorite? Let us know why in the comments!

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